Preston Jordan Lim
Assistant Professor of Law
Biography
Preston Jordan Lim is an assistant professor of law at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. His teaching and research interests include public international law – particularly China’s relationship with the international legal system – and comparative constitutional law, with a focus on Canadian constitutional interpretation. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in general law reviews such as the University of British Columbia Law Review and Queen’s Law Journal as well as in specialist law reviews such as the Cornell International Law Journal and the Asia-Pacific Law & Policy Journal. He has also written extensively for newspapers and popular outlets, ranging from the Globe and Mail to Lawfare.
Lim holds an AB (summa cum laude) from Princeton University, a Master in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University, where he studied as a Schwarzman Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School. He has served as a Policy Advisor to the Honourable Erin O’Toole—then foreign affairs critic in Canada’s House of Commons—as well as a law clerk to the Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and to Chief Justice Richard Wagner of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Practice Experience
- Judicial Law Clerk, Supreme Court of Canada (Office of the Registrar)
- Judicial Law Clerk, Court of Appeal for Ontario
- Summer Student, McCarthy Tétrault - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Policy Advisor to The Honourable Erin O'Toole, Parliament of Canada
Recent Publications
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The China-Canada relationship is warming again. But at what human cost?, The Globe and Mail, November 2025
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Justice Russell Brown's Rule of Law Thought, Lexis Nexis Canada, October 2025
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R v Edwards and Constitutional Review of the Military Justice System , LexisNexis Canada Inc., August 2025
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Nourishing the Living Tree: Vincent MacDonald and His Constitutional Thought, Dalhousie Law Journal , May 2025
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Symbiotic International Law: Combatting Uyghur Forced Labor, Utah Law Review, May 2025
Recent Presentations
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'Osgoode Society Legal History Workshop', The Great Depression and Canada’s Originalist Decade., Osgoode Society for Legal History, Online. September 2024
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'Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, Annual Meeting 2024', Nourishing the Living Tree: The Constitutional Thought of Vincent MacDonald, Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, University of British Columbia, University of British Columbia. May 2024
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'Conflict, Cooperation and Commemoration: Examining Interactions in the Past', Nourishing the Living Tree: Vincent MacDonald and his Constitutional Thought., Tri-History University Conference, University of Guelph. March 2024
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'15th Annual Hugh & Hazel Darling Foundation Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference', "The Great Depression and Canada’s Originalist Decade", University of San Diego School of Law, University of San Diego School of Law. February 2024
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'Junior International Law Scholars Association Annual Meeting', The Xinjiang Forced Labor Crisis and the Future of International Labor Law , Cornell Law School/Junior International Law Scholars Association, Cornell Law School. January 2024
Office: Rm 237, John F. Scarpa Hall
Phone: 610-519-6526
Fax: 610-519-6837
Courses and Seminars
- China and International Law
- Constitutional Law II
- Public International Law
Education
- Yale Law School, JD
- Schwarzman Scholars, Master of Global Affairs
- Princeton University, AB (Near Eastern Studies)
